Lilac
- HEX
- #C8A2C8
- RGB
- 200 162 200
- HSL
- 300° 26% 71%
- CMYK
- 0 19 0 22
Lilac or Lavender?
Pinker and greyer than lavender.
Language
Lilac probably goes back, through Arabic, to Persian lilak, a form of nilak, bluish, from nil, indigo, and Sanskrit nila, dark blue. Indigo's old name, anil, comes from the same root and gave chemistry the word aniline, the base of the first aniline dyes like mauveine. Lilac is recorded as a color in English from 1775.
Poetry
Walt Whitman's elegy for Abraham Lincoln, 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' (1865), ties the flower to grief: the lilacs were in bloom that April when Lincoln was shot.
Culture
In British and European mourning customs, lilac belonged to the final stage, as black gave way to softer colors (mourning-colors).
Kin
- Indigo: Same root: Sanskrit nila, dark blue
- Mauve: Aniline, the base of mauve dye, is named after indigo's anil
- Lavender: Both were worn in the last stage of mourning
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Lilac (color)' (first use 1775; mourning)
- Etymonline, 'lilac', 'aniline'
- Whitman, 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' (1865)
Hex values are screen approximations. Every page lists its sources.